After the Floods, a Mosquito Deluge

A plague of mosquitoes and washed-up World War II munitions are hampering Germans’ efforts to return to normal life after disastrous floods, but Czechs got encouraging news Wednesday as Prague’s 14th century Charles Bridge reopened after two weeks.

The bridge, a tourist magnet and symbol for Czechs of their proud heritage, was nearly submerged at the height of the floods.

On most summer days, tourists, artists and musicians crowd the span. But on Wednesday, only a few tour groups were on it.

The roar of generators and heavy machinery surrounded the bridge as construction crews worked to repair nearby buildings.

Other landmarks in the capital didn’t escape harm. The first expert assessments revealed that the stability of Prague’s Old Town Pinkas Synagogue was damaged.

The synagogue, known for its etchings of the names of nearly 80,000 Czech Holocaust victims on its walls, was flooded by more than 6 feet of water. It will be closed for at least a year.

The Old-New Synagogue, a 13th century Gothic landmark, will reopen next week, but services won’t resume for six months.

Cleanup and reconstruction continued in Germany as well. Police in Augsburg, a city on the Danube tributary the Lech, discovered high-caliber ammunition, grenades, rifles and parts of mines from World War II and warned locals not to touch them because many are still functional.

Further east, mosquitoes are creating irritation. The Bernhard Nocht Institute in Hamburg said mosquitoes had already benefited from a mild winter, a wet July and high summer temperatures. Now they are thriving along the Elbe, the main river in Germany affected by the floods.

Construction workers and those trying to restore riverbanks are complaining of the mosquitoes, and shops in affected areas reportedly have sold out of repellent.

The widespread flooding caused $14.7 billion in damage in Germany, $2 billion in Austria, $3 billion in the Czech Republic and more than $34 million in Slovakia, the European Union has said.

On Wednesday, the European Commission proposed a special disaster fund that could be used to quickly help pay for the damage.

Commission President Romano Prodi said the $492-million fund would be in addition to several billion dollars being directed to flood-damaged parts of Germany and Austria and to the EU’s eastern neighbors.

Prodi said the fund would be a permanent reserve to be used to tackle disasters in Europe and would probably be increased to about $983 million next year. The fund must be approved by the EU’s 15 member states and the European Parliament.